


Will You Accept This (Virtual) Rose

by DarcyDelaney



Series: One-on-One [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: M rating just in case but nothing explicit, M/M, Quarantine, Timestamp, the bachelor - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:53:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27357586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarcyDelaney/pseuds/DarcyDelaney
Summary: A shred of normalcy returns amidst quarantine in the form of the latest season of The Bachelorette, so of course Dean joins Cas, Billie, Charlie, and Hannah for their virtual watch party.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Series: One-on-One [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1998355
Comments: 12
Kudos: 82





	Will You Accept This (Virtual) Rose

**Author's Note:**

> A quick little timestamp for my 2018 DCBB, [One-on-One](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16333034/chapters/38211014).
> 
> I have no real excuse for this, other than the fact that I have a lot of feelings about this season of The Bachelorette (slight spoilers? I tried to keep them vague, but if you've seen the season, you'll be able to recognize the specifics) and desperately need a break from this endless, anxiety-riddled hellscape of reality. I hope it gives you all one, too <3.

“Really?”

Dean gestures to the Moleskine resting on Cas’ lap. It’s open to a fresh page, and Cas tosses the silk ribbon bookmark out of the way before uncapping his pen with his teeth and neatly printing the date in the top right corner. “Thorough notes are why we’re the top-rated _Bachelor_ podcast out there, Dean.”

Dean looks at him, unamused, then rolls his eyes. “Lemme guess, you gotta annotate ‘em too?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Says the guy taking _notes_ about a goddamn reality show.” He cracks his knuckles and kicks his feet up on the coffee table, crossing them at the ankles before sinking deeper into the couch. “You have one of these for every season?”

“How else am I supposed to keep my notes organized?”

Dean’s silent for a second, then grins widely at him, tongue poking out just a bit from between his teeth in that way that Cas has never admitted to loving, but somehow Dean seems to have discovered as his kryptonite anyway. “Where’s the one from my season?”

“Burnt it.”

“Fuck off; no you didn’t.”

“No, but there’s no way you’re seeing it.”

Dean pouts, and Cas is certain that if he had been standing, his boyfriend probably would’ve stomped his foot. “That’s fine,” he says suddenly, grabbing Cas’ laptop and situating it on the coffee table. He enters Cas’ password without a second thought and boots up Zoom. “I know all your hiding places.”

Now it’s Cas’ turn to roll his eyes. Ever since Boston was thrown into lockdown and the search for a new teaching gig that Dean had started just a few weeks prior was brought to a screeching halt, he’s had an abundance of free time. Their apartment’s cleaner than it’s ever been, with their books, movies, and records going through multiple rounds of organization until Dean had settled on an acceptable methodology for all three. He’d worked through dozens of new recipes, offering Cas everything from cinnamon apple cronuts to steak with a red wine marinade.

Cas’ job, on the other hand, had remained relatively steady. His office shifted to entirely remote work, and while the change did create some added stressors, Dean had found...unique ways to ease Cas’ nerves.

Blowjobs. And lots of them.

While Dean’s happy to suck Cas off whenever, it’s clear that he’s taken a special kind of pleasure in the challenge of getting Cas to break during Zoom calls. He’ll situate himself under the table a few minutes into a meeting, leaving Cas with no recourse as he proceeds to lick and suck and stroke and hum. Cas works _hard_ to keep himself together, but most days, it’s all he can do to keep himself together until he can hit the bright red LEAVE MEETING button, haul Dean to his feet, and have his way with him until he’s pulled away for his next meeting.

Suffice it to say, it all had been _great_ at first—endless free time with his insanely hot boyfriend to do whatever their hearts desired? Sign him the fuck up—but as the days wore on, the tides started to turn. As it turns out, spending 24 hours a day, seven days a week cooped up together in a cramped one-bedroom isn’t, well, particularly ideal. The prolonged time together unveiled quirks—and that’s putting it nicely; Cas probably would’ve gone with “inconsiderate habits no reasonable human would’ve carried into adulthood” while Dean preferred “stupid fucking things you’re doing on purpose to piss me off, Cas!”

Dean tends to leave cabinets open after grabbing whatever food he wants, driving Cas up a wall as he closes them just a _little_ bit louder than necessary.

Cas doesn’t think twice about dropping his plates and bowls in the sink without rinsing them first, leaving Dean to scrub and scrape off the dried food with more elbow grease than he puts into the fucking Impala.

Dean’s started drip-drying instead of toweling off after a shower, and as much as Cas appreciates the view, he hates the puddles Dean leaves behind even more.

Cas decides the oven is as good a place as any to store sheet pans and baking dishes, where Dean would then have to pull 400-degree ceramics out of the oven and wait for them to cool down before being able to cook them dinner.

Putting it simply, they’d needed a break, or at the very least, a diversion. They’d needed something that could make things feel even the slightest bit _normal_ in this endless, anxiety-riddled hellscape of their new day-to-day life.

So when it had been announced that _The Bachelorette_ would be coming back, well, Cas had been quick to embrace it as the gift it so clearly was. After seeing the text Charlie had sent their group chat, Cas had tossed his phone to the side, grabbed Dean’s face, and kissed him so hard without warning that his boyfriend almost fell off the couch in surprise. 

He, Billie, Hannah, and Charlie immediately launched into planning their first episode, thrilled to have something other than reruns and Instagram stalking of past contestants to report on. The show hadn’t even started, but just the choice of bachelorette was a four-course meal of drama and speculation in itself. Ruby Cortese had been around for almost as long as Cas had been watching, but despite a runner-up title on _The Bachelor_ , two stints on _Bachelor in Paradise_ , and an appearance on the short-lived _Bachelor Winter Games_ , she’d still never managed to find her special someone.

Cas would recommend she arrange to be a guest on a fan podcast and fall for one of the hosts; it’d worked out pretty well for him.

As far as Cas is concerned, she’s the perfect contestant for 2020, and she’d been quick to prove him right, starting from the first night. Ruby had dozens of guys to choose from, but from the very beginning, she’d only had eyes for one. Dick Roman, CEO of Roman Industries, had her smitten the second he slid out of the limo, all smooth talk and creepily well-defined cheekbones. 

She’d sent Bachelor Nation into a frenzy when she’d muttered, “I feel like I just met my future husband” at his retreating back; hell, Hannah had almost fallen out of her chair, and Billie had thrown popcorn at the TV screen. That opening half hour set the stage for an episode of sheer insanity, from a group date focused on love languages that got touchy-feely real fast to a one-on-one that could’ve doubled as a therapy session.

Ruby’s pushing the envelope, not giving a single fuck about unsaid _Bachelorette_ rules; Chuck Shurley’s just a blundering pawn in her game; and while Cas is here for every goddamn second of it, he wants Dean in on it too.

Despite their pleas, Dean stayed out of their show—”It’s your thing, Cas. I’d make it way too inside baseball”—but after Cas had caught him peeking around his book or laptop while they were watching the premiere, he’d convinced him to join them for their next watch party on Zoom.

Which is how they’re both curled up on the couch together, beers at the ready and English muffin pizzas in plates on their laps, waiting for their Zoom room to go live.

Before her video even connects, Charlie’s singsong voice echoes through the tinny speakers on Cas’ laptop. “Hello, my little lovebirds,” she croons. When she finally shows up onscreen, her chin is resting on top of her hands and she’s looking at Cas and Dean with eyes that may as well have literal hearts in them.

“Glad you could join us, Winchester,” Billie says. She nods, not taking her eyes off her screen as she pours herself a glass of red wine.

“Pleasure’s mine.” Dean winks at her and clicks his tongue. Draping an arm across Cas’ shoulders, he holds up his can of beer with his free hand and cracks it open singlehandedly, a move that's hot enough on its own, but that, if Dean ever figured out to use in combination with his stupid tongue-between-the-teeth smile, would absolutely spell the death of Cas.

Hannah’s got her cat, a fat little Persian named Bagel, in her arms, and waves one of his paws at the screen. “Hello, friends!”

Dean’s got his beer to his mouth and glances around it, then coughs on the sip he’s taking. “Fuck,” he mutters, abandoning the can on the coffee table before scrambling to his feet. “Fuck, fuck, fuck...”

“Your man all right?” Billie asks, arching an eyebrow as she takes a sip of wine.

“I...’m not sure,” Cas says hesitantly. He curls his legs up on the couch so he can turn all the way around toward their bedroom, where Dean had darted off to. “Dean?”

“Yeah, yeah, hold your horses!” Dean returns a few seconds later, slightly flushed, with Oliver in his arms.

Cas watches, bemused, as Dean tries to catch his breath before leaning in close to the screen and using Oliver's paw to wave hello back to Bagel. Cas can’t help the smile that appears at the sight of his boyfriend hunched over, nose mere inches from the laptop screen, using one cat to coo and wave at another. While some of Dean’s quirks and mannerisms make him want to tear his hair out (especially nowadays), Cas has come to realize that the vast majority of them—like this fucking spectacle going on in front of him—are endearing and warm and so undeniably _Dean_. It’s something that should be too sweet to be real, but Dean’s always managed to find ways of surprising him.

“All right, all right,” Charlie says once Dean and Hannah have wrapped up their feline greetings. She cracks her knuckles in front of her laptop’s camera and raises her own hard cider, looking at them all expectantly. “Take a moment…”

“Say your goodbyes,” they respond in unison, raising their drinks high before taking a long sip and hitting PLAY.

The episodes, much like the first one, are classic, chaotic, too-scripted _Bachelorette_ , but a return to the manufactured drama and routine—even if it is temporary—is more of a salve to Cas than he can communicate. He knew he’d missed this, but he hadn’t realized how much. While he’d love to shoot the shit and record regular episodes with his friends back in the basement of Ansin, he’ll take what he can get...and being able to get his boyfriend in on it all? Even better.

“Christ, dude, get that stick out of your ass,” Dean mutters, leaning back against the couch and crossing his leg at the knee as they watch one of the contestants, an insurance agent named Harry Spangler, dig into Ruby, berating her for objectifying his fellow bachelors during a group date of strip dodgeball, calling her the event classless and disgraceful. “Who can blame her for wanting to see those male modeling sons of bitches in all their glory.”

“He wouldn’t be complaining if it’d been a bikini contest,” Hannah says bitingly, finishing off her glass of moscato before going for a refill almost immediately.

When he finally goes off enough for Ruby to kick him out, they all erupt in cheers and whoops. Hannah has just enough time to cover Bagel’s eyes before Cas throws double middle fingers at the screen as Harry heads toward the exit.

“Fucking scumbag,” Billie mutters, shaking her head.

Dean scoffs. “Good riddance,” he says, waving absently at the TV screen. “‘m sure they only kept him around for the drama, anyway.”

The episodes move fast, but they’re still a good nine or ten away from the fantasy suites. That doesn’t stop Ruby and Dick from going at it during what’s supposed to be a group date; they’re constantly reduced to nothing but giggling middle schoolers, trying (and failing) to keep the secret that they want each other to themselves.

“That’s not…you don’t _do_ that!” Dean gestures helplessly at the screen, looking between it and Cas as Ruby and Dick tumble onto the bed and start making out for the third time that evening.

“Ruby does what Ruby wants,” Hannah says sagely, stroking Bagel gently in her lap. 

“Yeah, I can see that, but why is this show even still happening, then?” Dean asks. “It’s a waste of time; it’s so fucking clear the only dick she wants is _Dick’s_.”

Billie snorts into her wine, and Charlie throws her head back and laughs. “Christ, I’ve missed you, dude.” She pauses, then adds with a smirk, “But yeah, that's old news. You’d’ve known that if you’d joined us two episodes ago.”

Dean rolls his eyes. “Yeah, yeah.” He takes a bite of his pizza and washes it down with a long swig of beer, muttering, “His ears look like fucking...potato chips.”

It’s quiet enough that only Cas can hear it, and he chuckles. He rests his head against Dean’s shoulder for a few seconds, then leans up to whisper in Dean’s ear, tonguing gently at his earlobe, “I like yours better.”

It’s a good thing their webcam is shitty, because that move’s got Dean’s cheeks going redder than any _Bachelorette_ rose. 

By the time they get to the tail end of the latest episode, it’s clear that, as much as he tried to avoid it, Dean’s all in. He’s leaning forward, resting his elbows on his knees, hands tented over his mouth and nose as he watches Ruby leave a particularly odd cocktail party where she declined to give out a rose, opting instead to head for a more private area away from the men and (most of) the cameras, where a masked producer is waiting to talk with her. And Dean’s so invested, so locked in, so fucking _cute_ that Cas doesn’t even have to think about it. He digs into his pocket for his phone and snaps a quick picture. It’s a shot of Dean’s side profile, slivers of the laptop and TV screens in frame as well, making it clear that he's watching the show with the rest of the group.

“Uh, I’m sorry, _what_?”

Cas looks up at his boyfriend’s question, and almost bursts out laughing at his stunned face, one hand now tangled in his hair while the other grabs for his beer. “She just—did you—did ya’ll hear that? Did you hear what she _said_?! The fuck is this shit? What does this even _mean_?”

Cas smiles and shakes his head as Charlie, Dean, and Billie argue about whether or not Ruby was being facetious with her comment while Hannah tries and fails to moderate. Nobody’s missing him, so he finishes typing out a quick caption, tags Dean, Billie, Charlie, and Hannah, and hits “post.”

_Once a member of Bachelor nation, always a member of Bachelor nation._

_#stressed_

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Got Bachelor thoughts? Just wanna say hi? [Talk to meeee; I'd love to hear 'em both!](https://darcydelaney.tumblr.com/)


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